speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Plustek 8200 ai, Plustek 120!

Jomisamson

I have a refurb 550 also I got some time ago. Used it a time or two, wasn’t excited about results. Now with all this time on my hands, would like to revisit the device. Would you have any tips for scanning slides - anything from setup on that you would deem helpful? Any other resources that I might look into? Thank you in advance for any time and effort you could put into this.

Cracker-barrel Philosopher Loc: Duluth, MN

For all my 35's, b&w negs, color negs and slides, I'm lucky to have a Nikon "Super Cool Scan 4000 ED" that still works fine and gives me a 53 Meg (I think) scan file which I save as a 16 bit Tiff. Lovely!

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

Epson V600

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=epson%20perfection%20v600&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ps

Bonnie Halsell Loc: Ocala, Florida USA

Your budget and future use will narrow your choices for you. I own an 8 year old Epson V550 and it has served me faithfully, without any issues, scanning thousands of slide, film of various sizes and prints. Yes, I have to do some pp, as most of the slides are from 1970 to 1979, and this I expected. The availability of scanners is in direct relationship to the virus - we now are doing those "I wish I had time" projects. Perhaps you have a friend who can lend you use of their scanner?

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

I bought a Plustek recently and found it very easy to use and get great scans. I am in the middle of several thousand slides going back into the 60's. If you get a Plustek, study the settings and their relationship to the scanned file size. Lots of options..

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

What quality level do you need? Are you looking to scan mounted 35mm slides... or do you have any medium format slides or prints to scan, too? How much time do you have? Are you willing to "feed" the scanner on a slide-by-slide basis and gradually do the work?

How much are you willing to spend? (FYI, if this is a one-time scanning project, you may be able to recoup much of your investment later by reselling the scanner once you've completed the work. There's a lively market of used film scanners and they maintain value pretty darned well.)

Finally, what type slide film?

Generally speaking, dedicated film scanners with special software do the best job... but can be expensive and not really usable for other scanning purposes.

There are cheap dedicated film scanners... those aren't what I'm talking about. The "fast $100 film scanner" will only capture enough quality for a 4x6" print... maybe 5x7" if you spring for a $200 scanner. If you want to make 8x10s, 11x14s or larger, you will need a better scanner.

"Better" dedicated film scanners, which work with both negs and slides (mounted an unmounted), will have resolution between 4000 and 10,000 dots per inch, capture dynamic range as close as possible to "D-Max 4.0" or higher, and some have auto feed mechanisms to work with batches.

There are also "flat bed" scanners that can serve other purposes, some of which have pretty darned good slide/film scanning capabilities... Although they are typically not quite as good as better dedicated film scanners. With a flat bed the scan is always being done through a glass platen, while with a dedicated film scanner there is no glass between the lens and the film. But lets look at flatbeds, first.

Top of the line Epson V-series scanners are some of the best flat beds for film scanning (and usable for a variety of other document scanning, too). The current, most affordable of those are the Epson V550 and V600 for $200-$220 have 6400 dpi resolution, 3.4 D-Max, allow up to four mounted slides to be scanned at a time and use proprietary Epson scanning software. At the other extreme are Epson V800 and V850 for $900 to $1150 that have similar 6400 dpi, higher 4.0 D-Max, allow up to twelve mounted 35mm slides be scanned at a time and have holders for 35mm film strips, medium format and large format film, as well. One of the other differences is that these use Silverfast Ai software... and between the two, the D850 uses a more advanced version of that s'ware.

Among dedicated film scanners, there are currently two that offer batch scanning of mounted slides: Braun 7000 and Pacific Image Powerslide X, which cost $4000 and $900 respectively. Both can be loaded with up to fifty slides and will automatically feed them for scanning at up to 10,000 dpi. The Braun has 4.2 D-Max... I don't know about the Pacific Image scanner, it doesn't specify D-Max (other Pacific Image film scanners for 35mm format have 3.9 to 4.2 D-Max). I think both use proprietary software.

Dedicated film scanners [i]without[/i0 batch capabilities are more affordable. There are currently two primary manufacturers of those... Pacific Image and Plustek.

Pacific Image Prime Film XEs Super is their more affordable model at $379, offering 10,000 dpi, 3.9 D-Max and using proprietary software. Their Prime Film XAs Super is a bit more expensive at $449, also has up to 10,000 dpi optical resolution, a higher 4.2 D-Max and uses more advanced Sliverfast SE software.

Plustek offers four models that can handle mounted 35mm slides. Their most entry-level OpticFilm 135 costs $299, has 3600 dpi, a D-Max of 3.4, and uses proprietary software. A step up from that is their 8100 with 7200 dpi, 3.6 D-Max, Silverfast SE (special edition) Plus software and costs $349. The next two models 8200i SE and 8200i AI are similar in most respects to the 8100, cost $399 and $449 respectively. Both have more advanced dust and scratch removal than the 8100. The 8200i SE comes with Silverfast SE, while the 8200i AI comes with more advanced Silverfast Studio AI Studio and has more advanced color control.

Regarding software... Many of the above use proprietary software that may or may not be all that great. There's also a relatively generic Vuescan that costs around $100 and works well with many different scanners. Most users consider Silverfast the best scanner software and it's bundled with some of the above. Most Silverfast software is tailored for specific scanners and not usable with others. But there are also different versions of Silverfast. The "lite" version Silverfast SE Plus typically sells for about $100. A more advanced version with printer calibration costs about $200. The most advanced and comprehensive Silverfast AI Studio is also scanner-specific and sells separately for up to $500 a copy.

To put some of this intro perspective... For many years I've used a Nikon 4000ED film scanner. That cost approx. $1700 around 2001, has 4000 dpi optical resolution, D-Max 3.6 and used a pretty darned good Nikon proprietary software. It also required some special connectivity hardware at the time, came with a daughterboard and software driver for it. One of the reasons I chose it was because it offered option of a batch slide scanning accessory, which added another $400+ to the cost, but I bought it anyway. That can be loaded with up to 40 mounted 35mm slides. At highest resolution and with all oversampling and dust/scratch reduction enabled, a scan takes about 10 minutes per slide to produce a 130MB 16-bit TIFF file. I'd set it up to run overnight when I did batches.... and would usually get up the next morning to a completed job. But sometimes the slide feeder would jam and I'd have to fix that before it could complete the batch.

The following images are all examples of slide scans done with my Nikon 4000ED, with little or no cropping, and have been used to make up to 11x14" prints.

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/8022/7314723782_96ff6c28d7_c.jpg[/img]





I wouldn't expect to make high quality prints much larger than 12x16" with 'only' 4000 dpi, 3.6 D-Max scans (even with superb Nikon macro optics and the glassless scans as done by a dedicated film scanner). And at that resolution there's not much flexibility for image cropping. But, 20 years ago higher resolution scanners cost $10,000 or more! The scanner used by the newspaper I worked at cost over $100,000! Today there are many with both high rez and high D-Max, some of them bundled with great software, for under $500. Most don't have the ability to batch scan slides though.

If you consider used, besides the Nikon 4000 and 5000ED, Minolta and later Konica-Minolta offered a very good dedicated film scanner with resolution around 5400 dpi that might be worth a look. Be careful though. I haven't followed them closely, don't know how they've held up well over time or if there is any problem using them with today's computers.

Nikon like my 4000ED and the similar, slightly later 5000ED in good working condition often sell used for $400 to $650. Some of the accessories bring high prices separately, so look for as compete as possible. The batch slide scanner, specifically, now sometimes sells for nearly double what I paid for it! I was able to connect the 4000ED to my decades-newer computer directly, but not able to use the Nikon scanning software with newer operating systems. I ended up using Vuescan more recently... but would like to get Silverfast if I end up doing more scanning in the future.

Finally, I've recently been restoring a couple medium format film cameras and may want to scan some images from them. If it's only a few images, I'll just outsource the work. If it turns out to be a lot of images, I may invest in a flat bed, perhaps one of the Epson V-series with Silverfast software. I have a lot more confidence scanning medium and large format film with a flat bed... and they are much more affordable than dedicated medium format film scanners! The cost of scanning goes up a lot, with larger formats! I saw an old Nikon 9000ED sell for over $2000 recently. Even a basic film strip holder for that scanner recently sold for over $200!

And, some types of slide film can be tricky to scan. Kodachrome is one of those. Other slide film such as Ektachrome and various Fujichrome... no problem!

EDIT: I don't know why the above img link doesn't work... Here's an upload of that image:

(Download)

retfyrman

Thanks to everyone!! I now have many options to consider.

DeCea

I use a Canon S5 IS camera or Canon SX 10 IS camera, and a light box.
Place your slides on the light box in the order you want to copy them, then place the camera directly on top of the slide - these model cameras will focus to zero distance - then press the shutter button!
You can do a slide every 20 seconds, and your resulting image will be multiple MBs! No affordable scanner can do this.
Note: this technique does “crop” the slide about 6%.

MrT Loc: Gilbert, AZ

I use a Plustek 8200i. The Silverfast software has a steep learning curve but now that I have figured it out it works OK I have heard that Vue Scan works better, but I have not used it. I use Silverfast to create either tiff or PSD files I have not noticed a functional difference. I am working on very old family files from the 1960's - 1980s that were not well maintained. My stuff from the 1980s and 1990s looks much better. Good luck.

Clifster

I have been digitizing hundreds of slides using a Nikon D7100 with a 40mm macro in a modified duplicator. This is a similar rig to that shown in the DAM (DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT) book. Excellent reference. I shoot them using Lightroom on capture and I can then build a quick preset from one adjusted and apply that to all one batch (such as white balance, color shifting etc.) Also, I can also digitize b/w negatives. I have also used a Plustech 8100i, which does a good job of eliminating embedded dust in old slides.

Jolly Roger Loc: Dorset. UK

You say you have a couple of hundred to copy. I wouldn't spend money on buying a purpose made scanner for that number.
I copied maybe a thousand slides a few years back. I made a DIY outfit from foamboard etc. Didn't look pretty but did a fine job.
Check out YouTube video's for DIY Slide Copying.

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

2 years ago I had about 200 slides to scan. My CanoScan 8400F would probably have done the job just fine - 5 slides at a time - at the cost of my time. So I found a Pacific Images PowerSlide (on E-Bay) which scanned 50 slides at a time, unaccompanied. Yeah - - it choked on a few slides necessitating a restart - but when all was said and done, scanning the slides cost me about $0.25 each - comparable to commercial services. AND - I still own the slide scanner (in perfect shape). Unsure what I'll eventually do with the scanner - probably resell it on E-Bay or some such.
If I had to do it over again - with only 200 slides - I'd probably ship them off to a commercial vendor.

sailwiz Loc: Santee, CA

I purchase the Epson V600 after recommendations here. I'm not really pleased. It seems almost every second or third slide is copied out of color. One will have too much green, another too much blue or another tan. Slides in between are as good as one could reasonably expect!

GLSmith Loc: Tampa, Fl

I’ve had a PlusTek for years...software updates are free...doesn’t take a lot of space compared to flatbed scanners, slides & negatives